My Take: Asa Akira Said 'Nothing Dramatic or Traumatic Has Ever Happened to Me' — and Built a Career on Choice
Not every story is about escaping something. Asa Akira's is about choosing something, and owning the cost. Sourced and SFW.
Key facts
- Who: Asa Akira, American performer, writer and director (Wikipedia)
- Origins: Grew up in Manhattan’s SoHo; attended private schools in New York and Japan (Wikipedia, NPR)
- Where she said it: NPR interview with Arun Rath, May 11, 2014 (NPR)
- Milestone: 2013 AVN Female Performer of the Year, the third Asian performer to win it (Wikipedia)
- Writer: Insatiable: Porn—A Love Story (Grove Press, 2014) and Dirty Thirty (Cleis Press, 2016) (Wikipedia)
- Media: Co-hosted the podcast DVDASA with artist David Choe from 2013; hosted the first two Pornhub Awards (Wikipedia)
“A very normal family”
Akira told NPR her upbringing was stable and happy:
“I’m from a very normal family. My parents are still together; nothing dramatic or traumatic has ever happened to me.”
— Asa Akira to NPR, May 2014 (source)
Asa is her real first name, meaning “morning” in Japanese; “Akira” comes from the anime film (Wikipedia).
Owning the trade-off
She told NPR she saw every step “as a promotion,” but was honest about the price: when she chose the career, she “knew it would ruin my life forever,” and worried about how she’d one day explain it to kids (NPR). Her rule:
“I don’t think you should ever sell your body for just money. It’s not worth it.”
— Asa Akira to NPR, May 2014 (source)
Beyond the screen
She co-hosted the 30th AVN Awards and won Female Performer of the Year the same night, made her directing debut in 2013, wrote two memoirs, and appeared on Family Guy and The Eric Andre Show (Wikipedia).
My Take (opinion — Máximo García)
I like that Asa refuses the sad-backstory script. She says: I chose this, here’s what it costs, and I’ll leave if it stops being fun. That’s adult, honest, and rarer than it should be.
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FAQ
Where did Asa Akira grow up?
Manhattan’s SoHo, with schooling in New York and Japan (Wikipedia).
What is her memoir called?
Insatiable: Porn—A Love Story (2014); a second, Dirty Thirty, followed in 2016 (Wikipedia).
What did she tell NPR about money?
That she’d do the job even on a regular salary, and that you should never do it “for just money” (NPR).
How we fact-checked this
Every fact and quote was checked against the sources below. Quotes appear as the sources reported them; anything we could not confirm was left out.
Sources
- NPR: “‘Insatiable’: One Woman’s Love Affair With The Porn Industry” (May 11, 2014) — https://www.npr.org/2014/05/11/310536242/insatiable-one-womans-love-affair-with-the-porn-industry
- Wikipedia: Asa Akira — https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asa_Akira